I'll second the value of the triangular braces. They are easy to make and really add strength to the carton. I make mine the same width as, or just a bit wider than the box so they stay in place. You can also use these to brace stays and forks.
A good filler is trash bags filled with foam peanuts or wadded newspapers. 3 or 4 of these placed inside the box will absorb a lot of abuse.
As mentioned before, it is critical to put a double layer of cardboard everywhere and a thin layer of masonite on the bottom and the top of the box is even better. I have gone so far as packing the frame in a shipping box and attaching 6 to 8 inches of the end of another shipping box to the fork end of the main container to act as crush space or a shock absorber. If the rear wheel is in the frame, it will probably (maybe sacrificially) protect that end.
Most of the frame boxes I get from shops are too small to ship a reasonably sized road frame, so I have on several occasions used 1 box for the frame, fork, and rear wheel and another for everything else.
Finally, AMTRAK is a very real alternative. Their rates are reasonable and they will sell you a shipping box for $7 that requires you only to remove the handlebars.
Rick Chasteen, Kansas City
>
> Dear all:
> I bought Jim Bailey's Riv All Rounder a couple of years ago and he did
> something that even UPS couldn't break into....In addition to double
boxing
> and all the things posted we have been told about
>
> ...he took heavy carboard from a third box and folded it and made
triangular
> cross braces and taped about six (6) of these puppies strategically in the
> box. You could have driven a truck across that box and the Riv arrived
> without as much as a scratch. The compressive strength of these must
> approach something like 2x4's and don't have the bash and bang potential
of
> the actual 2x4 bracing.